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Astronergy (also known as Chint Solar) has announced that its parent company, the Chint Group, has officially signed a strategic cooperative framework agreement with the Gansu Development and Reform Commission, where it will invest in one gigawatt (GW) of solar energy projects and in 200 megawatts (MW) of manufacturing capabilities. This agreement marks the official launch of the province’s push to develop its solar industry.

Germany-based Q-Cells SE is to offer a professorship at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, in Halle, starting in its 2010/2011 winter term in a bid to educate graduates beginning their careers about the opportunities available in the photovoltaics (PV) industry. With both activities, the company says it is underscoring its commitment to Germany as a research location.

Hanwha Chemical Corporation, based in Korea, has bought around USD$78 million worth of shares in China-based Solarfun Power Holdings Co., Ltd. under a new strategic agreement between the two companies. In addition, it has entered into separate agreements to acquire shares from Good Energies II LP and Yonghua Solar Power Investment Holding Ltd. As a result, it now owns 49.99 percent of Solarfun’s outstanding shares and holds a 49.99 percent voting interest in the company.

Saudi Arabia will export as much solar energy as it does petrol today, according to the country’s Minister for Petrol and Raw Materials Ali Al-Naimi, who was speaking at a one-day Saudi-German solar conference, held today in Magdeburg, Germany.

Spain’s Asociación Empresarial Fotovoltaica (AEF) announced at a press conference held last week that negotiations on future solar subsidiaries have been postponed for the next two months, while the country’s government awaits the results of an investigation to find out which PV plants were illegally connected to the power grid in September 2008.

The U.K. photovoltaics (PV) market could be artificially restrained by its government, after attaching certain conditions to its payment of remuneration, says market research institute, EuPD Research.

Enel Green Power, Sharp and STMicroelectronics have signed a binding letter of commitment for a project financing agreement for €150 million for the development of what will be Italy’s biggest photovoltaics (PV) panel factory.

India’s Rashtrapati Bhavan (Presidential palace), the residence of the the Honorable President of India has received the ISO 14001:2004 certification, which was granted by the U.K.’s Bureau Veritas in view of the various standardized environment management practices, including solar energy, it has adopted.

Recurrent Energy has secured around USD$18 million for its five-megawatt (MW) solar power system, located at the Sunset Reservoir in San Francisco, the U.S. When completed, the company says the project will be one of the country’s largest municipal solar power systems and will more than triple San Francisco’s total municipal solar energy output.

pv magazine has learned from Professor Martin Green that Australia’s University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence will not be closing its doors, despite losing financial support from the ARC Centre of Excellence program from the end of this year.